We're doing the final preparations to sell our home in NE Vic, near Wodonga before taking long service leave and giving life on the road a try to see if it's for us, before quitting work.
Not sure where we will be heading, but across to WA, up the coast as far as we can get, then maybe across inland and up to Darwin.
I'm a fishing nut and we have on order a Mozzie Boat Loader to carry a 3.7-3.9 metre tinny on the canopy roof.
Have the BT50 booked in for a GCM/GVM upgrade at TJM, Albury to cope with the extra weight, and we should be good to go.
We look forward to conversing with, and meeting, some members in our travels.
We're doing the final preparations to sell our home in NE Vic, near Wodonga before taking long service leave and giving life on the road a try to see if it's for us, before quitting work.
Not sure where we will be heading, but across to WA, up the coast as far as we can get, then maybe across inland and up to Darwin.
I'm a fishing nut and we have on order a Mozzie Boat Loader to carry a 3.7-3.9 metre tinny on the canopy roof.
Have the BT50 booked in for a GCM/GVM upgrade at TJM, Albury to cope with the extra weight, and we should be good to go.
We look forward to conversing with, and meeting, some members in our travels.
Cheers everyone.
Wayne & Bec
Hi Wayne. Since I don't regularly visit this area I've only just seen this post, and thought that I'd warn you about GVM upgrades. As always the big problem with your car is rear axle carrying capacity. This is only marginally increased with a GVM upgrade although I don't have exact figure at hand. If you're towing you will NEVER get to your GVM because of weight removed from front axle. This can NEVER be replaced.
If you have not already had the expensive work done it would be wise to review new rear axle carrying capacity.
What is weight of your van as BT50 can generally not tow much more than 3100kg? TOPS.
Happy to help if you wish. Cheers
P.S If your car is a new model it'll have a 1910kg rear axle, and this is easily overloaded. For example, 300kg towball weight (3 ton van) will put about 430kg onto that axle. That's with no boat, no fuel, no tools, no beer. Be very careful or you'll simply be wasting your money.
-- Edited by yobarr on Tuesday 26th of September 2023 08:42:50 PM
We're doing the final preparations to sell our home in NE Vic, near Wodonga before taking long service leave and giving life on the road a try to see if it's for us, before quitting work.
Not sure where we will be heading, but across to WA, up the coast as far as we can get, then maybe across inland and up to Darwin.
I'm a fishing nut and we have on order a Mozzie Boat Loader to carry a 3.7-3.9 metre tinny on the canopy roof.
Have the BT50 booked in for a GCM/GVM upgrade at TJM, Albury to cope with the extra weight, and we should be good to go.
We look forward to conversing with, and meeting, some members in our travels.
Cheers everyone.
Wayne & Bec
Belated welcome from me too Wayne & Bec,
Long service leave is a great way to 'test the waters'. We did this back in 2009 - extended the period by using up other accumulated holiday entitlements & savings & took the lot on half pay to extend the time.
Of course, I don't know your circumstances, but selling your home before you know whether the travelling lifestyle suits you sounds somewhat premature to me. In fact I would always advocate not selling up at all unless it is your only option even once you have determined that life 'on the road' is for you. Unless of course you have some other 'Plan B' to fall back on if things go pear shaped (health-wise, major vehicle breakdown, financial etc). We have met too many folk who put everything into their travel dream & who after a few years of loving the life found themselves in a hole they were unable to climb out of - money run out, on a pension & stuck in a caravan park being exploited by caravan park owners was not uncommon. Nothing wrong in choosing to live in a caravan park I might add, but the folk I am referring to were those who had run out of choices in their lives. Sad to see, living on past dreams & no hope.
Not trying to dissuade you from your dreams - it's a wonderful lifestyle, so long as you have a Plan B to fall back on if ever needed.
